My Minestrone Recipe

As my roommate mentioned in his blog the other day, I took the time to whip up my patented homemade minestrone recently. As always, it came out EXCELLENT! Actually its not my recipe, but one that I got on page 31 of the this crockpot cookbook. http://www.goodbks.com/titlepage.asp?ISBN=1561483389

Mikey lovingly refers to this delicious dish as "super colon blow", for reasons specific to him. It's never been trouble for me though. Perhaps something with fresh zucchini, cabbage, diced tomatoes and garbanzo beans in it may be a shock to the systems of those who are not used to sampling such gifts of nature's goodness!

So here's the recipe. Do yourself a favor and try it out. It is truly awesome and easy to make. The picture of the finished product below doesn't really do it justice!

-makes 8 servings

1lb. beef stewing meat
6 cups of water
28 oz. can tomatoes, diced, undrained
1 beef bouillon cube
1 med. onion, chopped
2 tbsp. minced dried parsley
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 medium zucchini, thinly sliced
2 cups finely chopped cabbage
16 oz. can garbanzo beans, drained
1 cup uncooked small elbow macaroni
grated parmesan cheese

1. Combine in crockpot the beef, water, tomatoes, bouillon, onion, parsley, salt, thyme and pepper.
2. Cover. Cook on low 7-9 hours, or until meat is tender.
3. Stir in zucchini, cabbage, beans and macaroni. Cover and cook on high 30-45 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
4. Sprinkle individual servings with parmesan cheese.

Notes - Sometimes I just leave out the parsley. It tastes fine without it. Also, don't garnish with that powdered parmesan cheese crap, go with the fresh stuff! I've never had to wait 7-9 hours, usually 6 will do. Just make sure the meat is cooked and tender. Finally, it says it makes 8 servings, but its gotta be more than that. It pretty much fills that green crock below to the brim!